Photos of the Day

Three photos, three very different places. I’ll let you decipher where each was taken - your choices are:

a) In the Tokyo Subway
b) St. Lucia
c) The Serengeti

All photos copyright Scott Kennedy, 2008.

X-Wings, W(h)ine and Guys Who've Never Kissed a Girl

Happy Friday Blogland! To escort you into the weekend I’ve decided to share three of my favourite YouTube videos at the moment. They can best be described as X-Wings, w(h)ine and guys who've never kissed a girl.

This first video shows some pretty amazing model-building talent. Some guys decided to build a nearly full scale replica of an X-Wing Fighter from Star Wars – and of course they actually made it rocket powered. Though the first flight didn’t exactly go as planned – the editing and post-production on this video are top drawer.



Ok so it’s not nice to laugh at people who’ve hurt themselves – but I just dare you not to have a chuckle. I didn't know a human being could make the sound that this chick makes while she is on the ground - it's like something out of The Exorcist. Perhaps the best part is the hosts in the studio at the end – you may have laughed, but those bastards are cold!



And finally – another model building epic. At first I was convinced that this was some sort of skit from a sketch comedy show, but then it became all too clear. These people are for real! The question is, what do you do with a full scale Millennium Falcon set in your back yard? Obviously get semi-dressed up with your friends and play with fireworks. “it was a spiritual experience, what can I say.” Say no more…

My Top 5 Travel Gadgets

Perhaps it all started with a boyhood fascination with James Bond and his ever present array of cool spy gadgetry. I’ve always dreamed of being ushered into the depths of the London Underground to the secret home of Q-Branch to be issued my watch that does everything but keep good time, a jet pack and of course my new Aston Martin. Suffice to say that the reality of Desmond Llewelyn actually sorting me out with the spyware is near on impossible – and not only because dear old Desmond is dead. So if I can’t have the cool gadgets from the movies, what about the ones that I can buy from Radeoshack?

As a frequent traveler and gadget aficionado I’ve got some bits of technology that really have become near on essential. And with a little drum role here they are:


5) The Cell Phone – cellular phones have become modus operandi for damn near everyone in the world these days. Not just teenagers and stock brokers – I’ve seen Massai kids in Tanzania pull them from their traditional cloaks and everyday folks in Caribbean slums txting one another. They have become pervasive – everywhere. What I love about them for traveling is the ability to keep in contact with people back home at your fingertips. It may cost a fortune to ‘roam’ with your phone, so the best thing to do is get a local ‘sim’ card – it will cost you about $10 and with that you get a local number. You can then make local calls inexpensively and send txt messages to anywhere in the word for pennies.


4) The iPod – I remember when I went traveling for the first time many years ago, I spent days and days pre-departure making mix-tapes for my walkman. I knew I only had room for two or three tapes and they had to last me half a year. It was an agonizing process and within 30 minutes of leaving home I wished that I’d brought other tunes. Fast-forward to the iPod generation and all is different, so different. I have enough music on my iPod that I could listen to it continuously on most of my trips and never repeat a single song. Beyond that I have books on tape, podcasts from around the world (I’m learning to speak Arabic at the moment from one) and photos and video too. There are some who say that to truly osmosicly absorb the flavour of a destination you should forgo your music and just listen to what the country sounds like. That sounds like a bunch of pseudo-Theroux-ian hogwash – try spending 10hours in an airport waiting for a delayed flight, 15 hours on a bus or 3 minutes next to a screaming baby without some audio comfort.


3) GPS – I’ll admit it I’m a bit of a map geek – perhaps it stems from not having the best sense of direction, especially in cities, I always seem to have my face in a map. I love to know where I am and where I want to go. That’s why I love GPS technology – when you’ve got integrated maps in the GPS it’s even better. It’s like a video game and you are the star, the flashing red dot in the middle of the map – never to be lost again. Doubters will say that a GPS will never replace the good old compass – put that sounds a lot like what the sextant gurus said when that new famdangled compass arrived on the scene.


2) The Laptop – ever heard of a ‘flashpacker’? A flashpacker is a slightly upmarket backpacker who isn’t afraid to spend a bit more money to rent a car, do a cool activity or have a nice meal. They roll their luggage and more often then not have a laptop in their shoulder bag. With the ever-presence of wifi connectivity all over the place now (my favourite was at a campground in rural Saskatchewan) the laptop has become your travel agent, journal, connection home, photo storage device and cinema. Laptops used to be bulky, slow and prohibitively expensive – not so any more. Just have a look at the new ASUS EEE PC (http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=24&l2=164 ) it’s only slightly larger then a PDA, it runs windows XP, has a full keyboard, is wifi capable and retails for around $300 US! Who cares if it gets nicked at that price!


1) The Digital Camera – you knew it was going to be on the list somewhere and for me it is most definitely number one. Looking back at that first trip again, I remember carting around 50 rolls of slide film. I was scared shitless that they were going to get fogged in an airport x-ray machine, stolen, lost or just not be any good. Well that fear is well and truly gone. I now shoot a camera called a Canon G9 – it’s 12.1 mega-pixels, fully manual, looks much like a Leica Rangefinder and slides easily into my pocket. My SLR is gathering dust on my mantle – why would I lug that big thing around now? This little baby shoots in RAW, records time-lapse movies and is as sharp as any glass I’ve ever used. It’s loaded up with an 8GB card so I can shoot in the neighbourhood of 2000 full-res JPG’s and still have space to spare.

Those are my top 5 – what are yours? Did I miss something unmissible?

Cheers,
sk

Your Link to the Outside World - Part Deux

With thanks to those that recommended some of their favourite links – I have added twenty-some new ones over there on the right. Those reading this in a reader are going to need to slide on over to the site to see the links. By no means is this a comprehensive list so keep those suggestions coming! As you can see as well, I decided not to categorize the links – my theory is that I like all of these sites, blogs and art portals – and I hope you do too. I don’t want to pre-dispose you from not having a look at one just because the idea of beat-poetry/political hip-hop isn’t your thing or that you are somehow too mature for virtually popping bubble-wrap. Try your luck, click on a few random sites and see what you find!

Enjoy,
sk

Your link to the outside world – Part 1

As you can see my list of links over there on the right are pretty skimpy – the ones that are there are top drawer – but the time has come to expand that list. I have a whole shwack of links that I’m about to add but I thought I’d throw it open to my loyal readers – what are your top blogs, feeds, websites, podcasts – anything www related that you think others would get a kick out of. This site is mostly about travel, photography and adventure – but don’t just limit yourselves to those topics. In the past I’ve blogged about politics, art, pop culture and heaps of other stuff so suggest anything that you think is cool and if agree it’ll become a link on the site.

You can either add your suggestions to the comments page of this post or feel free to email me: scott@adventureskope.com directly.

Happy hunting and I look forward to what we can all come up with!

SK
Ps. By the way it’s totally okay to plug your own site!

The Caribbean Islands – good news and bad

YARRR! Ahoy matey!

Today be international talk like a pirate day – and how appropriate that Lonely Planet’s Caribbean Islands 5 is about to hit the shelves. As you may recall I did a fair bit of work on this project researching and writing about The Turks & Caicos Islands, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & The Grenadines and Grenada. I traveled to something like 16 separate Caribbean islands, saw some amazing things, met some super-cool people and had a great time doing it. It took much work, not just by me but by my 11 other co-authors, commissioning editors, cartographers, copy editors, layout people, several hundred Oompa Loompa’s behind the curtains and countless others to produce what is an absolute kick-ass guide to the Caribbean! We are all really proud with how it turned out – so if you’re looking for some info about heading to paradise be sure to check it out.

And now for the not so nice news… on the night of September 7th Hurricane Ike swept through the North Eastern Caribbean and lay waste to whatever was in its path. The islands of Grand Turk and Salt Cay (in the Turks and Caicos) took a direct hit and I’m saddened to hear the news that 80-90% of building have been destroyed. On my research trip to the region earlier this year, those two islands in particular were real highlights for me. Not only were they stunningly beautiful, with some of the best beaches I’ve ever found (and I’ve sampled a fair few…) but I was also embraced by the local community like no other destination I’ve ever visited. If you recall one of my more memorable posts from the trip where I ended up at the Governor General’s Christmas Party – that all happened on Grand Turk.

before...

after...

When I was on Grand Turk I met a fellow named Neal Hitch – he is the guy that took me to the big party. He’s an American ex-pat who moved to the island a year ago with his wife and three kids – really lovely people. Neal runs the museum on GT and is a really interesting and articulate guy – he has a blog that I’m a regular reader of which tells his story of moving to the Caribbean and starting over. I was really sad to read that Neal’s been impacted by this hurricane as much as anyone on the island – his house that he’s spent the last year fixing up, took a direct hit and was totalled. In the blink of an eye the roof was ripped off and all the contents of the house destroyed. Luckily everyone on both islands survived and there were few injuries of any sort.

This is a part of the world that comes to expect big tropical storms – but nobody expects a category 5 hurricane with winds of 430km/hr to come knocking on the door. Have a read of Neal’s Blog - http://hitch-n-tci.blogspot.com/ although the ordeal that they are going through right now is pretty tough to read about – his strength, honesty and commitment to stick it out is truly inspirational. Also have a read of Porter’s blog over on Salt Cay http://experience-it--island-thyme.blogspot.com/ there is some good up-to-date information on the damage plus the opportunity to dig deep and help out a little island that got flattened.

The Caribbean is a part of the world that has always been near and dear to my heart – and this double-shot of news, both good and bad, only helps to strengthen that bond…

SK

Abridged – Day 75

Abridged – Day 75 is a new short film that I’ve just completed. People often ask me what being writer is all about – I thought the easiest thing to do would be to show everyone what a day in my life is like. Sometimes mundane, sometime frenetic, always changing, always evolving.

I hope you enjoy it and I hope it shines a light. I look forward to your comments!





cheers,
SK

Obligatory Sarah Palin Blog

Under the category of everybody else is doing it… here are my two cents on the potential Vice President of the United States. You don’t have to look too hard on the web these days to see a viral onslaught of opinion regarding this Alaskan politician. Does the devil wear Patagonia? Is she really the anti-Christ that she is made out to be? Well who knows really – but here are a few interesting tidbits that have come to light over the past few day.

She’s all about traditional family values and her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant to a boyfriend who is a self described redneck. She is strictly pro-life and created a policy in Alaska where victims of rape have to pay for their own rape-kit once they are in hospital (that could be perhaps the most un-feminist policy in the history of American politics). When elected Mayor of her little northern town she asked the Librarian of her town library what the procedure would be to get ‘certain’ books banned. And then there is of course the, “I see Russia!!” foreign policy experience, where she lists being able to see Russia from here home as a feather in her international relations cap. Perhaps I should be the ambassador to Thailand; I did have a mean pad-thai for dinner last night.

Say what you want about these things but there perhaps even scarier forces at work here. John McCain has campaigned on the fact that he is a political maverick and that he does what he wants not what his party tells him to. But his decision of running mate doesn’t harken to individuality it reeks of desperation. In an attempt to woo disenfranchised Hillary supporters who were unwilling to jump on the Obama bandwagon he’s wheeled out little miss NRA. Rather then creating a platform based upon the future, he’s banked on doing what he can to win the election and then let the rest sort itself out. He chosen a woman to run along side of him to attempt to entice female voters, unfortunately the woman he chose is not only woefully inexperienced but an ideological dinosaur when it comes to woman’s issues. But that being said, McCain is comfortable with dinosaurs – he is the only person alive to remember what they actually looked like.

If McCain wins he will be older the Regan – people that old shouldn’t be allowed to run the TV remote and this guy wants to be in charge of the most powerful nation on earth? Add to that this increasing rhetoric about Russia and its invasion of Georgia. Palin alluded to the need for the US to take pre-emptive action against Russia because they are a threat to the US. What the fuck? Are we going back to the cold war all of a sudden? Is it because Iraq is going so well we better get another war in the pipeline?

Speaking of pipelines – Palins solution to the US dependency on foreign oil? Drill the shit out of the Alaskan wilderness and then build a pipeline through, THROUGH! Canada! Please make the bad woman stop! Here crazy talk is hurting my ears!

I’m not an American, I don’t live in the states – but like everyone in the world the decisions that are made there affect me and affect us all. Come November I hope all those who have the opportunity to cast their vote don’t squander that chance. Vote for all of us who can’t vote, vote for change and a move in a direction that reflects the potential of what the American dream once was.

SK

Life on the road – the reality

Self portrait – September, 2008

What the F**K is a Staycation?

Scott mid Staycation - circa 2002

According to Wikipedia (the Maori god of knowledge) a Staycation (or stay-cation, or stacation) is a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home and relaxes at home or takes day trips from their home to area attractions. Staycations have achieved high popularity in current hard economic times in which unemployment levels and gas prices are high.

Common activities of a staycation include use of the backyard pool, visits to local parks and museums, and attendance at local festivals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staycation

Isn’t this just staying at home for the day? Since when does it deserve its own posting in Wikipedia and be elevated to, “the next big thing”?

I’m throwing this wide open and looking for comments – what do you think, is The Staycation the holiday of the 21st century or just some load of bullocks that the folks at your local swimming pool have dreamed up to get you to finally test out that waterslide.

What do you think?
SK